Imposter
by Tokumei-san
Summary: Yaoi doujins simply must have a source. Meet Kamikawa Shie, a girl who unwillingly dives into the Kuroko no Basuke universe to get inspiration for making yaoi doujins to make money for her president, impersonates Takao's cousin, and finds herself in a gigantic mess. Yaoi, male/male, OC. Rating will change.
1. Chapter 0- Dealing With Bankruptcy

**Title: Imposter Chapter 0—Dealing With Bankruptcy**

**Rating: K**

**Pairings: As of yet, none, but to be KagaKuro, MidoTaka, AoKise**

**Genre: Romance/ Friendship **

**Warnings: To be (lots and lots of) yaoi, OCs, but no OCx whoever pairing.**

**x.x.x.x**

It was with increasing trepidation that Kamikawa Yoshie, otherwise known as Shie, marched briskly down the corridor to the Manga Club clubroom of Saijin High. Just twenty minutes ago she was at Visual Arts, trying desperately to capture the utter sloppiness of the student model for that class, when a rock had been thrown through the fortunately open window, and hit the model. Amidst the chaos the injured model had instantly roused she had snatched the rock and, as she had suspected, there was a note attached to it. She had immediately remove the note, made the suitable excuses to her teacher (Sir, I feel like I'm about to throw up, may I leave?), and stepped briskly out of the classroom in a very un-sickly way.

She had unfolded the note earlier—it was marked with a series of unintelligible _kanji_ and scribbles and the only thing she could make out was the signature, which read 'Taka'. Seeing the signature only made her hurry more—she never knew what the owner of the signature would attempt and she was not about to risk it, especially if his previous antics included climbing down from the roof with his hands tied together.

She reached the flight of stairs that leads to the usually deserted half floor. She had no idea what the architects were thinking when they drew out the floor plans, but it had somehow cumulated into that odd little floor, neither here nor there, with only two staircases: one that led to the ground floor, and another one that was decidedly crooked and rickety and winding and finally led out onto the roof. How it did that none knew; it just did.

The half floor itself was about a third the size of a normal floor corridor, and as a result it had only two rooms. The larger of the two was allocated to the Science Club, which had made it a tradition to petition every year for a room better situated and better equipped, and the smaller was allocated to the Manga Club, which simply did not care. To add insult to injury (or so the Science Club thinks), the janitors treated the floor like a storage room; all manners of unused objects, from wonky lockers to crates to an old piano, were stored there, and it made the already tiny space even tinier (or so the Science Club thinks).

When she reached the door of the Manga Club clubroom she tested it apprehensively with her foot (once the door fell on her as she tried to open it). Finding it safe, she knocked loudly. There was no answer. Sighing, she opened the door herself and slipped in.

"Takashi?" she called as she turned to close the messily patched up door. There was still no reply, and no sound at all for that matter, other than a brief shuffling of paper. She debated with herself whether it would be wise to turn around, and at last decided to.

What met her eyes made her narrow her eyes in anger and sigh exasperatedly simultaneously. The club president, Inoue Takashi, was lounging on the desk with a shifty and apologetic grin, and a familiar looking brunet was working at the unsually clean table. The small disordered room looked like its' usual messy self at the first glance, with _manga_ volumes and figurines and posters and _doujinshi _and wooden chairs everywhere (literally everywhere; there was a roll of posters slipped cunningly onto the ceiling fan), but if she looked closer she could spot some obviously new, and obviously very expensive _manga_ and figurines artlessly disguised to fit in with the others. She could guess where the money came from.

"I hope you have a good reason for dragging me out of class, prez," she began.

"Er, yes, Shie-chan…" Takashi trailed off, with a guilty look on his face. Shie raised an eyebrow.

"Yes?" she prompted, danger glinting in her eyes. They were an uncommon shade, a warm amber, but it only served to make her more intimidating as she glared at Takashi.

"Inoue has gone and used all the funding for your club to buy statues," a bored voice cut in. It was the brunet boy, who was still playing

"Jun!" Takashi exclaimed indignantly. "Not statues, _figuri_-ah." He caught himself hastily. "What I was trying to say, Shie-chan, was-"

"Don't 'Shie-chan' me, prez," Shie snapped. "If you've gone and wasted all our yearly funding on _**more**__ manga_ to expand your library it's none of my business. Excuse me." She made to get up, but Takashi hastily pressed her back into her seat.

"Listen to me, Shie-chan." He continued in a steadily more pleading voice. "Haven't you always wanted to be a _mangaka_?"

That stopped her in her tracks and she relaxed into the chair. Being a _mangaka_, unpromising job it may seem to everyone she mentioned it to, was a dear dream of hers. She'd like to think she had the talent for drawing, but she would readily admit that she had no imagination at all whatsoever to anyone who challenged her, and seeing as that was one of the important requirements to be a good _mangaka_, she could not see how she was supposed to make her dream come true.

Not that she was going to stop trying though.

"Well, Jun here, he recently invented this wonderful thing called the 25 Dimension Pen-" Takashi began eagerly, but was interrupted yet again by Jun.

"2.5, and you owe me a big favor Inoue, seeing as I invented this for you especially-"

"It allows you to make things real in paper-"

"It materializes objects in the second dimension, and creates a certain type of space in the third dimension that I haven't named yet-"

"Basically that space gets you into the paper, and if there's already something in the paper-"

"Providing that the information on the representation of the second dimension is clear enough, the unnamed space transports you to, shall we say-"

"That world on depicted on the paper," Takashi finished excitedly.

"So, Jun-san here- may I call you Jun-san?" Shie attempted to interpret (the mutter of 'The name's Hamasaki Jun' went unnoticed) "invented a pen that can transport you into a fictional world provided that it is depicted on paper."

"Exactly. Clever as always, Shie-chan." Takashi looked relieved that she had understood the semi-argument explanation. Shie guessed that he didn't exactly understand the workings behind that sophisticated piece of technology either.

She folded her arms. "And this has _what_ to do with me wanting to become a _mangaka_?"

"Everything," the answers came out in a rush now. "You go into a _manga_, observe the characters and get a plotline, draw them into a _doujin_, get back here, and voila, a _doujin_ that you can sell."

Shie half- listened as the president eagerly outlined the rest of his plans for making an obscene amount of money in order to compensate for the money he had used to buy the 'beneficial merchandise' and let her eyes drift to the mysterious pen they were talking about. It was, to Takashi's credit (Prez has a flair for the dramatic), completely normal looking. True, it looked more like a Wacom pen then a regular old ink pen but she wasn't about to complain-

Wait, did she seriously mentally accept the offer? Shie shook her head to clear her mind. Takashi didn't seem to notice; he was still prattling about sales and market niches, and Jun was still busy shuffling the papers, so she fell to studying the pen more. Now that she looked at it she began to doubt whether It would work as Takashi had said it would.

"Does it work?" she wondered aloud.

"Of course," Takashi exclaimed. "I've never know blatant fanservice to fail yet. Just look at all those _fujoshi_, you see them squealing over just one _doujin_-"

"No, the pen." Shie resisted the urge to facepalm.

"The pen?" Takashi tilted his head quizzically. "Well, if you mean going into the second dimension-" he reached for the pen and drew a large rectangle with blunt end on a random volume on the table, and watched with no small amount of satisfaction at Shie who gaped at the drawn rectangle. The paper surface collapsed and folded into a pinprick to reveal a vibrantly alive coloured rectangle of an aerial view of a city.

Curiously Shie poked a finger into the space. Much to her surprise it went through, and she pulled her finger out again. Takashi grinned. "Satisfied?"

"By a half." Shie examined her finger. It felt normal. "Does the other function work too? Making things real in the second dimension?"

"Definitely." She swore she could hear the pride puffing itself up in Jun's voice. "Inoue tried it himself."

"Even if the things should be downright impossible in reality?" she mused.

"Yes." The pride held its' head even higher. "Inoue has made a fully-functional magic wand once."

"Mhmmm…"

Sensing weakness Takashi swooped in. "Think of the name you can make for yourself."

"Mhmmm…"

"Think of the fame."

"Mhmmm…"

"Think of the mone-"

"I decline." She snapped, and got ready for the second time to leave, only to be forced down yet again.

"We already have orders," Takashi mumbled, and Shie felt, not for the first time, that she would dearly like to see her president's bloody mangled corpse, courtesy of herself. "A lot of orders."

"You accepted orders, without consulting me. The only other member of the club." Takashi could feel the temperature drop about twenty degrees. The accusations Shie was giving him were obvious: how dare he act so rashly? How dare he be so lazy as to not consult the _only_ other member of his club?

He gulped and offered a penitent smile. "Er, yes?"

Shie snorted and with a final huff, crossed her arms and settled into the hard wooden chair. "Fine. Tell me what I have to do."

The relief rolling off of Takashi made the room warmer again. "Have you heard of 'Kuroko no Basuke'?"

"Of course." Shie had reached for the 2.5D pen and was starting to play with it. "The basketball _manga_ with an overwhelmingly large, rapidly-growing fandom that attracts yaoi enthusiasts like flies to honey."

"Err, yes. I guess." Takashi's grin grew wider. "The bulk of our first orders are mainly centered on this _manga_."

"Let me guess. You want me to make a yaoi _doujin_." Shie deadpanned.

"Not one, as many as you can." Takashi counted off his fingers. "There are a total of eleven or so pairings, but-"

"Eleven". Her voice was incredulous.

"-but since it would be impossible for you to do that," Takashi ignored her, "we'll be concentrating on just three." He rummaged in the sump on the table and eventually extracted three sheets of very worn paper. Those he waved eagerly. "A short introduction on the characters?"

"If you want." Shie sank even further into the chair. Takashi cleared his throat and began in an important voice.

"Firstly, the famous 'KagaKuro' pairing. 'Kaga' is Kagami Taiga, 190 cm tall ace and power forward of Seirin High-"

"Was the power forward part necessary?"

"-if you're going to converse with him at all it is. Red hair streaked with black, red eyes, very brash, very very wild, very very very weird eyebrows. So good at basketball it's scary-"

"Everyone's good at basketball in Kuroko no Basuke."

"-yes, I know, but even by that standard. You'll know him when you see him, he's hard to miss." Takashi stopped to take a breath before he went on. "Next, the 'Kuro' in the pairing stands for-"

"Kuroko. That was obvious."

-stop interrupting me, Shie-chan. It stands for Kuroko Tetsuya, 168 cm god-knows-what's-he-doing of Seirin High. Currently position-less but a regular on the Seirin team, specializes in misdirection and passes. Yes, passes," he repeated to a sniggering Shie and snorting Jun. "He takes passing and turns it into an art form. Suspiciously unnoticeable, with a ridiculously low presence, so low that you have to pay attention to see him. Inseparable partner to Kagami, or as he likes to say, 'shadow' to Kagami's 'light'."

"Which makes him, ah, the 'uke' to Kagami, I guess," Shie mumbled under her breath.

"You'd be surprised," Takashi smiled. "The next pairing, MidoTaka. 'Mido' is Midorima Shintarou, 195 cm unfallible shooter of Shuutoku High. Green hair, glasses, taped left hand fingers. Widely hailed as a tsundere by the fangirls and very grumpy. Is in love with the Oha-Asa horoscope predictions, and in fact follows them to the letter. Is obsessed with his luck-

"Superstitious guy."

"-exactly. Always so precise, Shie-chan." Here he winked at her, but it was ignored- the intended recipient was busy staring out of the window. "Very reserved. Very proper. Very very arrogant. Don't be too raucous around him."

"Next up, Takao Kazunari. Black hair, silver blue narrow eyes, perpetual grin on his face. Polar opposite of Midorima. 176 cm point guard of Shuutoku. His peripheral vision is scary, so take care you don't do any sneaky moves around him. Extremely cheery and somewhat prone to bad luck-"

"How so?"

"They play _janken_ every morning to see who pulls the other to school on a rickshaw. Takao always loses. Midorima isn't light either."

"Who bottoms?" Shie asked curiously.

"No idea," Takashi answered shortly. He was beginning to wonder if Shie was going to become a _fujoshi_, and he certainly wasn't about to accelerate the process.

"Finally, the AoKise pairing. 'Ao' as in Aomine Daiki, 192 cm ace of Touou high. Frighteningly powerful-"

"Again?"

"-again. Dark blue hair, dark skin, darker personality, very lazy, and so arrogant you just want to punch him sometimes. Not that one could manage. Has two creases on his forehead, god knows where he got them. Commonly depicted as possessive, but whether he is, or isn't, remains for you to see."

"For me to see." Shie's tone was incredulous again. "Even the scary fandom doesn't know?"

"Canonly, no, no one knows, only that he was very attached to Kuroko. Last but not least, Kise Ryouta, 189 cm small forward of Kaijou High-"

"Hold on, not the same school?"

"They knew each other from their Teikou Middle days when he and Aomine and Midorima and Kuroko and Murasakibara and-"

"Pardon? Didn't catch that."

"Murasakibara. Purple field. And of course, Akashi. Those people were known as the Generation of Miracles-"

"Awfully stuck up of them," Shie commented.

"Well, other people bestowed this title on them, but most of them _are_ pretty stuck up. It's up to you to make them lovably adorable in a _doujin_ though," Takashi smirked. "Good luck with that."

"Get on with it, you prat," Shie groaned.

"Yes, ma'am," he had the audacity to stick his tongue out at her and Shie would have giggled if not for the fact that no, she didn't giggle. So instead she glared at Takashi, which was a good enough hint for him to plod on, "Sickeningly cheerful and carefree and bright and sparkly and pretty. Always has a horde of fangirls after him. Pretty much a fangirl of Kuroko himself. Adds –cchi as a suffix to anyone he acknowledges."

Shie had by this time forgotten most of the details- Takashi was too fast for her- but she still asked "Anything I should know about the other two Miracles?"

"Murasakibara is a glutton for sweets, and Akashi is probably a demon humanified," Takashi said shortly. "With luck you won't need to meet them."

"Oh." She got up and stretched- it felt like she had been sitting there for hours listening to her president lecture her on manga characters. She turned and fixed a baleful eye on Takashi. "When do I start?"

A thick sketchbook was promptly stuffed in her hands along with the 2.5D pen. "Preferably now," Takashi answered, with a grin that seemed to be growing wider every second. Shie was hustled over to the desk, given another little booklet, and finally a _tankobon_. She peered at it, and a blank-eyed boy stared back at her. She assumed that was the titular character.

"Go on, get in," Takashi urged excitedly. "Don't forget the pairings!"

Half amused and half exasperated, she nodded. Grabbing her bag from the floor, she put the sketchbook and booklet inside and randomly flipped to a page of the tankobon. She picked a scene showing the sky and drew a rectangle over it with the blunt end. Immediately the white and black folded into itself to reveal a sky as blue as the one she was used to seeing.

"I'm going," she mumbled, feeling foolish as she climbed onto the table(and upsetted a good many stacks of _manga_ volumes in the process) and unsurely put a foot into the blue rectangle. It fit, and she was going to slowly lower herself down, but Takashi intervened and accelerated the process.

"Have a safe-" he pushed firmly on the back, causing her to lose her balance and tumble into the second dimension, "-trip!"

And that was how Kamikawa Yoshie came to land in the Kuroko no Basuke universe.

x.x.x.x

**A/N: First venture into the KnB fandom. Don't worry, the story won't be blabbing about the OCs forever, cross my heart and hope to die, so please don't complain about the (as of yet) complete lack of canon characters. This chapter is required.**

**Golden rule of : reviews make the story run :D Go on, I know you have some to spare. **


	2. Chapter 1- Kazu-chan

**Title: Imposter Chapter 1— Kazu-chan**

**Rating: K**

**Pairings: As of yet, none, but to be KagaKuro, MidoTaka, AoKise**

**Genre: Romance/ Friendship **

**Warnings: To be (lots and lots of) yaoi, OCs, but no OCx whoever pairing.**

**x.x.x.x**

There were a few extra things that Shie learnt that day, the first being that falling through the sky, whichever dimension you were in, was always exhilaratingly frightening. Somehow she seemed to be able to direct her mass while falling, so she managed to avert falling onto a few buildings, some very tall trees, some shorter trees, someone's backyard, barbed wire, and eventually managed to land relatively unscathed onto a deserted little road.

She also learnt that whatever dimension you were in, landing from a high place onto bare concrete on your knees always hurt.

After she had checked her knees for injuries (it was miraculously unhurt- must be due to manga logic, she thought), she looked for her bag. Much to her relief it had only landed some five yards from her. Everything managed to stay inside, and she immediately rifled for the booklet she had received back in the third dimension.

The booklet felt much more substantial than it had felt back in the clubroom, but Shie was more interested in the content. She slowly turned to the first page.

'_Dear Mr./Ma'am,' it began, 'if you are reading this then Inoue has probably managed to persuade you to land in the second dimension to satisfy his lunacy. First I must congratulate you on your bravery. Little have escaped from carrying out his antics whole.'_

'_Moving on. This booklet is the instruction manual to the 2.5DP, otherwise known as the 2.5 Dimension Pen. Simply put, it renders whatever that is drawn on paper real in the second dimension, and creates a passage from the third dimension to the second dimension and vice versa. If you desire to make a passage, draw with the blunt end of the 2.5DP, and it will materialize within a second. If you wish to create objects in the second dimension, draw with the nib end of the 2.5DP on paper, and said drawn object with materialize within a second.'_

'_Revolutionary though this invention may be, however, it is not all-powerful. There are several restrictions to this product, namely,_

_If you wish to create an object out of the ordinary, say a magic wand, then you must specify the drawn object's abilities on the same piece of paper you draw it on._

_The usability and appearance of the object depends entirely upon the drawing talents of the user. If you draw an apple that looks like a peach it will turn out extremely disastrous._

_The pen works only on paper from the third dimension. __Only paper from the third dimension__, mind you. What happens if you draw on paper on the second dimension I advise you not to try.'_

'_That is all. Keep safe,_

_Hamasaki Jun'_

She wondered if Takashi had forced him to write the instructions, or if Jun had decided to write it purely out of concern for whichever poor sod Takashi had decided to recruit for his expedition. That being said, she decided to try out the 2.5DP herself.

She rifled through her bag for the sketchbook and drew it out and flipped to the first page. There was thankfully nothing.

She decided to draw a pair of sport shoes- it was a _manga_ on sports after all. Settling herself on the concrete and sitting against the wall, she uncapped the pen and began to sketch. The ink looked surprisingly normal as she finished the sketch and began to point out colors for the different parts of the shoes. As a joke she wrote in 'grants super leg strength when worn' and removed the pen from the surface of the paper. A second later a pair of black track shoes sat neatly on top of the sketchbook. She took off her leather shoes and slipped them on. To her surprise it fit.

She was busy stuffing her leather shoes into her already overstuffed book bag when a loud screeching came from around the corner. Natural curiosity made her leap up and sprint, and she marveled at the abnormal speed she could run at, before she skidded around the corner and neatly fell onto a soft, warm something, which gave a little whimper.

"I'm sorry-!" she leapt off the soft, warm something and apologized profusely. Only then did she notice that she had the luck to crash onto a person who was already on the ground. A second glance showed that the collapsed person on the ground had a bike lodged firmly below her (She had shoulder-length hair so Shie assumed that it was a girl) and a bursting sports bag beside her.

She immediately ran to help the fallen person up. When she got up Shie was surprised by how _focused_ her silver blue eyes looked—the girl had crashed a bike and gotten flattened by another person, and it wouldn't be shocking if she was slightly disorientated, or clouded by pain at least. Yet she seemed perfectly fine.

Her next apology was cut short by the girl, who asked cheerfully if she could help her get the bike up. Shie obliges of course, and she props the bike up while the othr girl gets her bag.

"Treat me to make up for falling on me?" she proposes, still cheerfully.

x.x.x.x

A nonplussed Shie find herself seated opposite the girl she had knocked over at Maji Burger. The girl herself was happily sucking away at a cola. She had three meals in front of her and Shie was beginning to understand why the other girl asked her to treat her as compensation.

"Whew~ it's nice to get something into my stomach before Kazu-chan gets me," she says offhandedly as she gets started on the fries.

"Kazu-chan?" Shie asks. She feels sure that she has heard the name somewhere before, but cannot exactly recall where.

"Ah, my cousin. Takao Kazunari." She tells her and gives her a look of interest as Shie starts in recognition. "You know him?"

"Oh, Takao-san?" she racks her brain to make up an excuse. "I know him from competitions," she invents wildly.

"Kazu-chan plays men's basketball," her eyes narrow at him and Shie gets the feeling that she has become prey.

"Sports," she corrects herself. "He's famous. I've heard him, even if I'm on the badminton team."

"Yeah, Kazu-chan is wonderful, isn't he?" she launches off into Takao's history with her—they play often when they were small since they are cousins, especially hide-and-seek, but Kazu-chan always wins because he can see from above. She calls Kazu-chan Kazu-chan and he calls her Mayu-chan, sometimes, but mostly they just play. He laughs and jokes all the time, and he always comes to watch her competitions even if she's on the track team, so in return she watches all of his matches too. She's wanted to go to the same school as him, but he got into Shuutoku because of his extraordinary basketball skills, so she couldn't. Well it doesn't matter now, since she's transferring into Shuutoku anyway—her parents are going overseas and don't want to leave her alone, so they are leaving her in Kazu-chan's care. Who knows, he might even let her stay over, but she doubts it. Mayumi's parents don't want to bring trouble to him and she doesn't want to bother Kazu-chan either. She knows that she'll be in the same class as him, so it'll still be perfect~ Speaking of parents, his parents are always off somewhere so he knows how to cook—oh, she still remembers to apple pie he used to make, it's so good, and isn't he just _fantastic_? Perfect boyfriend material! He's fun and humorous and handsome and-

Shie nearly nods off by this time, but inspiration flashes across her mind and suddenly she is wide awake. She immediately fishes out the sketchbook she got from the clubroom and the 2.5DP and begins to draw the girl's face. It is another three minutes before the girl stops the flow of praise for Takao and introduces herself formally.

"I'm Takao Mayumi! You are?"

"Kamikawa Yoshie. Nice to meet you." She replies absentmindedly and continues drawing.

"Beautiful river, huh? That's a pretty name." she grins, and notices that Shie isn't actually listening. She leans over and asks, "What _are_ you drawing?" She shows her and Mayumi gasps in admiration. "That's me! And such a likeness!"

Shie cracks a little smile. "I'm glad you agree." She writes 'mask' next to the portrait and removes the 2.5DP. "And I'm sorry."

x.x.x.x

Some fifteen minutes later a girl wheels a bike from Maji Burger and catches sight of a rather tall person with green hair and a considerably shorter person with raven-black hair. The brunet is swaying slightly on his feet, or maybe it's because he is twirling around _way too_ _animatedly_ while he is talking to the person beside him. She takes a deep breath, then waves and yells, "Kaaaazuu-chaaaan!"

The raven haired boy turned around and Shie recognizes the lucidly piercing silver blue eyes she had seen on Mayumi earlier. There was no doubt that that was Takao Kazunari—silver blue eyes were not common so it had to be a family resemblance. She plasters a gigantic smile on her face and pounces on him.

"Oof- Mayu-chan!" he eases her off him and Shie has to admit that was pretty gentle for a boy- if anyone had tried that with her she would have shoved them off. "What're you doing here?"

She pouts. "Mother and Father are letting me stay at your place because they're going overseas, remember?"

A brief look of confusion flashes over his face before he laughs cheerfully. "Oh, yeah. I forgot."

The rather tall boy next to him interrupts. "Who is this, Takao?"

Takao grins shamefacedly. "Sorry, Shin-chan. Mayu-chan's my cousin. Her parents are working overseas so they sent her to my place." He turns to Shie and introduces the boy at her side. "Mayu-chan, this is-"

"Midorima Shintarou, ace of Shuutoku, right?" the words spill out before she can hold them back and she gulps. Was Mayumi supposed to know that?

Takao looks at her strangely. "Yeah," he eventually replies. "Shin-chan, you're faaaaaamous!" he grins at Midorima, whose eye twitches before he tells Takao to shut up and hurry up—didn't he invite him over for dinner?

"Yeees, ace-saaamaaa~" and Shie stares at Takao, unsure of how to react. Were boys supposed to be this cheerful? She settles for inspecting Midorima instead. As his name implied, he really was rather green- his hair, his cold eyes, the parrot perched on his shoulder-wait, _the parrot perched on his shoulder_?

"Kazu-chan, what's that?" she points at the parrot as they began to walk, Shie wheeling Mayumi's bike.

"The parrot?" Takao asks without turning around. "It's Shin-chan's lucky item for the day."

"_Lucky item_?" She chokes back a laugh. It wouldn't be good to antagonize him this early on. Boy, she didn't expect Midorima to be this superstitious.

"You should never underestimate the power of Oha-Asa," Midorima's cold voice cuts in. "The power of luck is not to be taken lightly."

"We know, Shin-chan," Takao soothes. His voice sounds strangely far away. "Don't get your feathers in a ruffle."

The rest of the time to Takao's home is spent with Takao gaily chattering about anything and everything, from parrots to basketball to rickshaws and back to basketball again, and with Midorima making no sound, except to occasionally tell Takao to shut up. Takao would answer with a bright, "Yes, ace-sama," before he completely disregards his earlier promise and finds another topic to talk about. Shie herself make no sound. She was here to observe, not socialize, and anyway she had to recover from the shock of finding Takao strangely chatty and Midorima extremely eccentric.

Well, at least until Takao asks, "Mayu-chan, you're strangely quiet today, are you alright?" does she immediately brighten up and reply with a flippant, 'No, I'm fine, Kazu-chan," and joins in the conversation.

She cannot afford to be found out, just yet.

x.x.x.x

The guest room at Takao's house is dusty, and Shie knows that Takao has really forgotten about Mayumi. She pokes her head out of the guest room and finds that her room is directly next to Takao's. She rejoices. This makes it so much easier to gather information.

She withdraws back into the guest room and nearly coughs to death. Takao obviously did not do housework. She opens the window to let some fresh air in and draws an air freshener for added effect. She was pondering if she should get a duster when a faint, "Mayu-chan, dinneeer~" comes from downstairs. She does not bother to answer, and instead runs downstairs as quick as she can.

When she gets to the table she chokes back a laugh again when she sees Takao in an apron. She settles instead for a squeal of "Kazu-chaaan, you're soo adorable~!" and glomping the boy. Takao chortles and shoves her playfully, to which she replies with a giggle and settles herself diagonally across to Midorima. She seems to have done the right thing because Midoirma makes no reaction whatsoever.

She lets her eye rove over the table and sees a steaming pot of _nikujaga_ on the table. The table was set neatly for three and as she rests her chin on her hands she can see that the table was worn but clean- Takao has cleaned up over here at least.

Takao sets down the miso soup and begins to spoon rice into bowls. When he sets those down too (Shie notices that he serves Midorima first, but that doesn't have to mean anything, or maybe it does) and seats himself opposite to Midorima, they chorus "Itadakimasu~" and begin to eat.

Takao chatters cheerfully during dinner and Shie joins in as best as she could, being unused to talking for over long periods of times. Midoirma is still silent and eats with a will, polishing his food off. When he asks for a refill Takao happily obliges with a "I'm glad you like my cooking, Shin-chaaan~" and gives him a large serving. Shie flicks her eyes to Takao's place and frowns. He had barely touched his food. Was he too busy talking?

"That's not good, Kazu-chaaan," she chides. "You should eat more."

"Eh-?" Takao turns to face her for a second and Shie gulps when she sees shock and suspicion flash in his narrow eyes. Then everything was normal again and he shrugs and grins. "It's alright, Mayu-chan, I don't have much of an appetite today.

Then he goes on teasing Midorima about horoscopes until Midorima finally finishes his second serving and stands up abruptly. "Thanks for the food."

"Eeeh, Shin-chan, you're not staying over?" Takao whines, but Midorima is already halfway to the entrance and takes no notice. "And just when I fixed up some _shiruko_ for him too. Oh well, I'll give it to him tomorrow." The door swings closed and Shie also rises from the table. "Thanks for the food, Kazu-chan-"

"No, you can stop calling me that." It is a few seconds before what Takao says registers in her mind and she turns around to face him. He has his arms folded and his eyes are rife with suspicion, making them even more penetrating.

"I don't understand, Kazu-chan." She decides to bluff it out, but she immediately regrets her decision when Takao has her pinned to the wall in two strides.

"Didn't I tell you to stop calling me that?" His predator's gaze bores into her and she swallows. The game was up. "You're not Takao Mayumi. You're not my cousin. _Who are you?_"

"How did you find out?" she whispers. A 176cm muscled teenage boy pinning you against _anything_ was dangerous.

"Oh, so you're finally owning up to it." His grip on her relaxes slightly and Shie immediately looks for a way to get out of this predicament. "Easy. Mayu-chan always talks when's she's around me, regardless of who's there. She 's always quieter during dinner because she's eating. And finally," he pokes at a spot between her brows, "her eyes are _silver-blue_, not _amber_!"

Ah, she knew she missed something when she made that mask. "Then why did you play along?" she asks.

"I make a policy to never hit girls, no matter how darn annoying they happen to be, but I'm seriously going to punch you if you don't tell me who the hell you are!" his face is now uncomfortably close to hers, and she feels an uncomfortable heat on her face. She sincerely hoped she wasn't blushing. This was hardly a situation to blush in.

"My name is of no consequence." She tries to wriggle out under him but it was in vain- his defense from playing basketball must be kicking in, and he blocks her neatly.

"One more chance." He is nearly kissing her by now and Shie wants to tell him to shove _off_, my god, isn't this embarrassing for him too?! "You-"

The interrogation is cut short when Takao suddenly collapses on her, sending them into a heap on the ground. Shie flails around and eventually manages to get out of his grip.

"Takao!" she yells, momentarily forgetting to call him 'Kazu-chan' as Mayumi would've done. "What's wrong with you?"

Her mind flashes back to the various ticks that have somehow caught her eye. The swaying on his feet, the softer voice, the lack of appetite, the uncomfortable heat, and she immediately feels his forehead. Not much to her surprise it is burning.

"Kazu-chan," she whispers next to him,"can you stand?" She takes the groan he lets out as a 'no' and tries desperately to hoist him up, but if she cannot escape his pinning her then most certainly she cannot pull him up.

"Come _ooon_, Takao, get up for a bit at least," she moans, reverting back to his last name, and he twitches a bit. She sighs. So much for the power of wills and voices in manga.

x.x.x.x

In the end she had managed to half-drag, half support him (she was secretly relieved that the dragging part began once they had gotten up the stairs. Imposter of Mayumi though she is she does not think much of willingly hurting someone)into his bedroom and hauled him into his bed. Once in his bed everything was much easier to handle: she rolled the blanket off the bed, rolled him onto the pillow, and spread the blanket over him. By the time she runs for an ice pack she is sweating. Dragging a 65 kg dead weight is no joke, and the fact that it is summer doesn't help.

When she returns Takao is struggling to sit up in bed with a dazed look on his face."Get down, Kazu-chan!" she shouts, and she covers her mouth as Takao winces. "Sorry. But you're sick, Kazu-chan, so-"

"Don't call me Kazu-chan," he mumbles, giving in and sliding back onto the bed. "It's creepy."

There is sense to that request. "Alright, fine, Takao then." She replaces the blankets and places the ice pack on his forehead.

"And don't call me Takao that way either…you sound like Shin-chan…"

"That doesn't make any sense. Besides, your teammates probably all call you Takao."

Takao chuckles tiredly. "You're right, but the way you say it… just don't." She wonders if Takao is delirious because she was positive she is nothing like Midorima and confirms it when Takao begins to nuzzle into her hands. "Shin-chaan~"

"Takao!" she immediately jumps away and Takao pouts in bed. "Aww, Shin-chaan's shyyyyy~"

"Don't call me- I'm _not_- _Takao_- just- just sleep. _Please_." How did he even mistake her for Midorima, seeing as the green haired boy was at least two heads taller than her? More manga logic, she decides. Takao cheerfully obliges what he thinks to be Midorima's request and snuggles into the blankets.

Shie tries to survey the situation carefully to see what she can make out of it. Takao is half-delirious and mistaking her for Midorima- that accounts for some feelings on his part, yes? Wonderful. So she could invite Midorima over tomorrow and-

Oh.

Midorima.

School.

My god, school. Takao pedals Midorima to school every morning on a rickshaw. She doesn't even know where Shuutoku is, and she's supposed to transfer in tomorrow. Should she take responsibility and fill in Takao's spot? She should. It wouldn't hurt too much.

Without further ado she runs to look for the rickshaw, praying that the damned vehicle was somewhere inside the Takao residence.

x.x.x.x

**A/N: *Berating self for not getting to the parts that don't involve Shie earlier* And I promised myself that I wouldn't concentrate too much on the OCs' too **

**Anyway. Hope you enjoyed, I don't own KnB (I seem to have forgotten the disclaimer on the last chapter but whatever), and the KnB fandom sure is popular. Three days and the story's already buried.**

**Enjoy and give me your thoughts on this! ;) The review was really encouraging~ *wink wink***


	3. Chapter 2- First Day At Shuutoku

**Title: Imposter Chapter 2— First Day at Shuutoku**

**Rating: K+**

**Pairings: As of yet, none, but to be KagaKuro, MidoTaka, AoKise**

**Genre: Romance/ Friendship **

**Warnings: To be (lots and lots of) yaoi, OCs, but no OCx whoever pairing.**

**x.x.x.x**

"Good morning, Midorima-san."

There were very few things that could take Midorima by surprise. Seeing Takao's cousin with Takao's rickshaw and seeing said cousin obviously ready to cart him off to school without any objections, however, certainly merited some shock, which was why Shie watched the usually unflappable Midorima take a step backwards, closed paper fan in hand, without any surprise on her face.

Eventually he recovered and got into the rickshaw. "Where is Takao?" he questioned.

"Kazu-chan has a fever, so he's staying at home-"

"Wonderful," he muttered, "that means I will not hear his annoying chattering today-"

"Oh, and he told me to give you this," she went on, casually throwing a thermos behind her (she doesn't know if Takao actually intended that, but she was sure it wouldn't deviate too much from his intentions). She did not need to look to know that Midorima had caught it, and so she began to pedal off into the unknown.

She mentally congratulated herself for remembering at all to wear the track shoes that she had drawn for herself yesterday- pulling a 79 kg basketball player along with his paper fan and extremely heavy-looking book bag certainly was no joke, especially since she hasn't had as much training as Takao.

Like Takao, however, she cannot bear the silence, so she poses a question. "What _is_ inside that thermos?"

"_Shiruko_." And then the conversation was over. They rode on quietly, Midorima leisurely unscrewing the thermos and Shie just pedaling, looking for wherever the heck Shuutoku was-

Where on earth was the place anyway? She was sure she had followed the directions she'd gotten from the computer to the letter- left, left, up, right, down, straight, left, or maybe it was right- darn, she'd forgotten-

"Takao-san." She swore she could hear malice dripping off his voice, but it was definitely only her imagination. She turned around slowly. "Yes?"

"Pay attention, please. You should have turned right back there." Oh, so she was wrong. Darn.

"I'm very sorry." She checks her watch and gulps- she's in danger of making them late for school. With as much strength as she can muster she wheels the cart around and starts to pedal-

"Takao-san, clearly you also have your cousin's idiotic tendencies. That is the wrong way." Another biting direction from Midorima.

Oops.

x.x.x.x

By the time Shie ushers Midorima off the rickshaw and parked it, the bell was already ringing, and Midorima was already beginning to sprint towards the school entrance. She is a little disappointed that Midorima did not wait for her, but she supposes that one does not wait for a complete stranger, especially if your attendance record is in danger of being tarnished.

Pushing these thoughts of the back of her mind she runs to catch up with Midorima. Mayumi had only told her during their conversation at Maji Burger that she would be in the same class as 'Kazu-chan', but she did not specify which classroom, and Shie did not think it was a good time for her to try and find out. Seeing as Midorima was in the same class as Takao, following him would be the best course of action.

She bites back a frustrated snarl as she catches up to Midorima taking off his outdoor shoes and switching them for his indoor ones- he was _late_, for god's sake, surely he could worry about that later? Nevertheless she pulls out the indoor shoes from her bag and tries to tug off her trainers as she walks briskly towards the first set of stairs she sees-

"Takao-san, is this the time for going to the storeroom?" Midorima's voice rings out from behind her, and she spins around to find that Midorima is heading off by himself.

'Like it was my fault,' she thinks to herself, and follows him. They climb up two flights of stairs, with Midorima leading because without the trainers, Shie was much slower, and eventually they arrive at a classroom door. The sign on the door proclaimed '1-C', and as the door was slightly open, they could hear the teacher beginning, "And today we have a transfer student-"

As payback for making fun of her, she slides the door open and rams into Midorima with all her strength in one movement, catches him off guard and making him stumble forward into the classroom. The class was quiet for a moment, and then began to titter. She sees Midorima's eyes narrow and hurriedly steps into the classroom herself and waves to get the class's attention.

"Yes, as _sensei_ was saying-"she stopped to clear her throat, "-there is a transfer student today, but it isn't Midorima-san." She turns and chalks out 'Takao Mayumi' onto the blackboard and grins to hide her embarrassment. "It's me. I'll be in your care from now on," she bows with a flourish, "so please take care of me!"

The class laughs as the attention shifts away from Midorima and settles on the newcomer. The teacher clears his throat and inquires drily about her and Midorima's dramatic entrance, to which she explains in an increasingly syrupy voice about how kind Midorima was to take her to school since Takao was sick, but since she got them sidetracked they were late and it really wasn't his fault, it was all hers, so please don't blame him because-! The teacher grows tired of her explanations by this time and motions for her to stop, but she doesn't until she coaxes the teacher into not marking this into Midorima's record.

She is directed into her seat (left of Takao's seat and diagonally behind Midorima's) and as she passes she offers him a hopeful smile for a peace offering, but he ignores it and begins to unpack. As she settles into her seat she wonders if she could actually get close enough to the two of them to gather any information at all for making _doujins_.

She guesses not.

x.x.x.x

She wakes up on the table from an impact on her head and is more than surprised to see Midorima standing there. "What is your horoscope?" he asks.

Shie is more than a little bit shocked. Why does he even need her horoscope? Her mouth and tongue move by themselves, however, and answer, "Capricorn." She watches with interest as he moves so fast he seems to disappear and returns in a short while with a t-shirt in his hands, throwing it to her. Shie catches it, but barely just, and asks him, "What's this for?"

"I do not want you crashing the cart when we go home," was his answer, and as he turned away she starts to piece what he had just said with her knowledge of him to make sense of this cryptic response. He is halfway across the classroom before she does a very Takao thing and yells, 'So, Midorima-san, does this mean that you like-"

"You, Takao-san, are so much like your cousin that it is frightening," he returns and adds, "I must say it is very disappointing. I was looking forward to a day of peace and quiet." He leaves through the door, alone, and Shie smarts silently from yet another harsh comment. She has no time to retaliate, however—she was immediately swamped by several girls and immediately comforted by them. They assure her that it wasn't her fault, that Midorima was always this horrible (She knows that already. She has had some experience.), and she looks _sooo_ much like Kazunari-kun-!

"Kazunari-kun—oh, Kazu-chan." She wonders briefly about why they call Takao by his first name. It bothers her a bit, so she asks. They all mysteriously turn away with blushes on their faces and mumble something about Takao being friendly. One of them asks instead why does _she_ call Kazunari-kun, Kazu-chan.

Shie reads the slight contempt in her voice and decides to make use of it. "Because I've called him that ever since we were small," she replies nonchalantly and smiles. "Kazu-chan calls me Mayu-chan too so it's fine~!" With that she flounces off cheerfully, sketchbook in hand and 2.5DP stuck in her ear, with the knowledge that she has successfully turned all the Takao fangirls in her class against her.

Wonderful. Darn wonderful.

x.x.x.x

She has no idea why she packs her stuff in a hurry and runs downstairs to find Shuutoku's gym, or more specifically, where the Shuutoku basketball club practices. Maybe it's because she thinks that since she wants to ask Midorima to come over anyway, she had better look for him firsthand.

Shie runs around for a full fifteen minutes before she forgoes some of her pride and asks another impossibly (to her, at least) tall blond person where the gyms were. The blond peered at her curiously. "Are you related to Takao?" he eventually asks.

Ah, so everyone else _does_ call him Takao. "Kazu-chan's my cousin."

The blond turns around so he could hide his laughter. "K-kazu-chan- my god, Kazu-chan. I'll never let him hear the end of this." He recovers gradually and asks with a barely-straight face, "But you must know Takao isn't in today. He has a fever."

"Who says I'm looking for Ka-Kazunari?" she catches herself and tries not to give Takao too much embarrassment. She's still living with Takao- it wouldn't do if this gets to his ears.

"Kazu-chan is fine," the blond winks and nudges her. "He calls Midorima Shin-chan all the time anyway, it's time someone gave him an embarrassing nickname." Then he frowns. "But if it's not Takao, then who-"

"Please, the gyms." Shie tries to turn the topic away.

The ridiculously tall (Shie suspects he is even taller than Midorima) blond introduces himself as Miyaji Kiyoshi, third-year regular at the Shuutoku basketball team, and begins to lead her to the gyms. As they walk he remarks, "You really do look a lot like Takao."

Shie wasn't sure she had heard right. "Excuse me, senpai, I look like Kazunari?" It was surprisingly easy to call Takao, Kazunari. Maybe she should try it with him when she gets back, since he seemed so averse to her calling him Takao.

Miyaji shrugs. "Well, the way you both tie your hair back with a hair band, your hair colour, your general expression… the only thing that doesn't look like him are your eyes. They're too large to be like his. " Shie wonders just how many things Mayumi has done to mimic Takao, and whether he minds. Outwardly she nods. "You aren't as chatty as him though."

So she wasn't. Should she care? "I guess."

"Takao-san definitely is as chatty as Takao." A cutting voice comes from behind, and Shie knows Midorima has spoken.

"Oh, come on, Midorima. She certainly isn't as chatty as Takao- what's your name, by the way?"

"Takao Mayumi, pleased to make your acquaintance-"

"-and besides, everyone's too noisy for you, yeah?" he winks at Shie and nudges Midorima in the elbow before venturing into a large white building. "Be nice to her." Shie watches Midorima brush off Miyaji's touch and holds in a grin, but it slips when Midorima wheels around to face her.

"What are you doing here?" he grits out, clearly uncomfortable.

Shie pulls an innocent face. "Waiting for you?"

"You do _not_ need to wait for me."

"You gave me a T-shirt and told me not to crash the cart. I thought you wanted me to pedal you back?" Shie folds her arms and waits to see if she has won this argument.

"Yes-"Shie childishly rejoices, "-but there is no need for you to embarrass me here. Go find something to occupy yourself and come back here at six."

"Jesus, Midorima-san, you ask Kazu-chan's cousin, who isn't obliged to do anything for you, to cart you home, and yet you brush her off unceremoniously when you don't need her. I hope this isn't the gratitude you show Kazu-chan-"

"-how do you even know he carts me home? Are you a stalker?"

"Kazu-chan tells me a lot of things!" Was Mayumi supposed to know that?

"And besides, you have chauffeured me to school this morning and made me late. The least you can do to make up for it is to get me home again. Do _not_ come in, I tell you-"

"_Midorima_!" a near unholy screech comes out of the gym and another impossibly tall person sticks his head out and catches sight of them. "You had better come in and stop flirting with your girl-"

"She is _not_ my girlfriend!" Midorima yells, at the same time Shie shouts, "He is _not_ my boyfriend!"

Miyaji sticks his head out too. "Flirting with Mayumi-chan? Tsk tsk, Midorima, I thought you had better sense than to chat up Takao's cousin-"

"She's Takao's cousin?" the first head who sticks out interrupts, clearly shocked.

"Yeah she is, Ootsubo." Miyaji nods in glee. "Wait 'till I tell Takao-"

"F-for the last time, Takao-san is not my girlfriend!" Midorima retorts, face as red as a tomato.

"God knows you two certainly have the coordination for it," The head named Ootsubo mutters. "I'll be counting this as one of your whims, Midorima, now _get in here!_"

"Y-!" Any complaint Midorima has is readily ignored as both of the heads withdraw into the gym. Midorima hurriedly follows, but not before he gives Shie a warning glare, which clearly said 'Do not come in or risk the consequences'. Shie returns it with the most Takao smirk she can manage, and decides to temporarily oblige him. She starts to meander around, carefully remembering which path led where just in case she can't find another person to lead her to the gyms again.

Some time later, at the cafeteria, which was strangely still busy, she was accosted by a bunch of girls.

"Yes?" she was on edge, fearing that they were Takao fangirls hungry for revenge.

"You're _the_ Takao Mayumi?"T here was some sort of sparkle in their eyes and behind them and- well, basically everywhere. Must be manga logic, she thinks.

"That's me," she answers carefully.

The excited girls introduces themselves as members of the girls' track team and Jesus, they were so honored to meet _the_ Takao Mayumi who won at so many competitions, and won't she _please_ join the track team? They were sure that-

Shie doesn't bother to hear the rest, and hightails off, thanking Midorima that she hasn't had time to actually take off her black track shoes and no one actually noticed.

x.x.x.x

When Shie finally gets back to the gym, completely disheveled and dead tired (she hadn't realized just how determined the track team people were to get Mayumi onto the team) from running everywhere to get rid of the track team pursuers, Midorima is already waiting with his arms folded, one foot impatiently tapping the ground.

"You're late," he huffs.

"I…it's-"she looks at her watch, "only t-thirty seconds past-"

"Punctuality is a virtue, Takao-san, or must I tell you that as well?" Midorima glares down imposingly.

"I-I was chased… by _half the track team…_ around the campus-"

"That is your problem." Midorima turns neatly on his feet and leaves. Shie wants to catch up but she _can't_, her lungs feel like they were ready to quit in protest, and eventually she settles for collapsing into a sitting position on the ground, leaning against a pillar to give herself some rest. Her legs ache so much she doesn't think they're going to move anytime soon.

A cool something touches her forehead and she opens to see a bottle of mineral water and Midorima's emerald eyes staring impatiently at hers. "Drink this," he says shortly.

"Midorima-san… you-" Shie wheezes, still trying to get her breath back.

"Just drink it." All she can see are Midorima's legs now, but she could hear the embarrassment in his voice.

Shie uncaps the bottle and downs one half of the water in a long gulp. "Midorima-san… really is a tsundere," she mutters.

"And you, Takao-san, are really too much like your cousin." He roughly pulls Shie up and she yelps, surprised. "Now get up or your muscles will freeze up and I will never hear the end of it from Takao-"

"I… doubt it," she mumbles.

"-and Miyaji and the rest of them." He begins to hoist her to the rickshaw, constantly telling her to start supporting her own weight and she does, but not before she wonders if he does that for Takao too. "Is it so bad, me… being like Kazu-chan?" she muses aloud.

"Yes." Midorima answers promptly without a hint of hesitation, and dumps her unceremoniously onto the bicycle seat. "Five more minutes and you will start getting me home. It is getting late."

She starts in two minutes when she feels that she has gotten most of her breath back. To hell with her legs. "But why?" She asks when she begins to pedal the awkward contraption out of the Shuutoku campus.

"Why what?"

"Why is it bad for me to be like Kazu-chan?"

"He is too annoying, too flippant, too-"

Shie waves a hand hastily. "Okay, okay, point taken." She has listened to too many rants lately. Shie carefully turns into the deserted road. She doesn't think she has enough energy left to make any detours, intended or not, and she remembers her earlier promise to herself.

"Midorima-san, hear me out on this."

"What?" His tone has a touch more irritation in it than usual and Shie wonders if she has overstepped some unknown quota of words Midorima has for her.

"Please come over and help me take care of Kazu-chan." She makes her voice as pleading as possible without getting too whiny.

"No." The answer is expected and instantaneous and Shie readies herself for yet another argument.

"But Midorima-_san_-"

"No means no."

"Midorima-san, you can't expect me to change him-"

"I most certainly can. Why do you think males all bare their chest in beaches?"

"Yes, but it's embarrassing and- and slightly, er, immoral-"

"You were hanging all over him yesterday!"

"That's-that's cousin-ly affection!" To be honest she agreed with Midorima. Mayumi _does_ seem to be too be a little bit too fond of Takao.

"It does not appear to be the case."

"Even if I'm fond of him it doesn't justify me taking off his clothes!"

"It is cousin-ly care, as you have said yourself. It is hardly immoral. One would normally praise another for being so caring-"

Shie was nearly at her wits' end. "When Kazu-chan was half delirious yesterday he mistook me for you," she says simply and waits for Midorima's reaction.

"He did." Was that a reaffirmation, a statement or a question, and did Shie imagine the slight satisfaction in those two words? She probably did.

"Yeah." They arrive at Midorima's home and he disembarks elegantly from the rickshaw.

"So are you coming?" she calls out to him hopefully.

"Stay here," he said by way of a reply.

Shie smiles, satisfied and gets ready to gather material for her first _doujin_.

x.x.x.x

**A/N: Hello, this used to be xXShieXx~ I've just changed my name. I'm still the same person. **

**Anyways. I'm now trying to shift the attention off Shie. It isn't as easy to make an OC-centric fic that doesn't focus too much on the OC as I first thought. (I hope Midorima isn't too OOC by the way.) The next chapter is definitely going to be MidoTaka fluff, though, so stay tuned~ ;)**

**Review, let me know what you think, give the poor author some food to live on.**

**I don't own KnB. If I do MidoTaka light novels would be hot off the press every month(did I mention that MidoTaka is my OTP?).**


	4. Chapter 3- The Sick Visit Scene

**Title: Imposter Chapter 3— The Sick Visit Scene**

**Rating: T**

**Pairings: MidoTaka, TakaMido (I don't know anymore.)**

**Genre: Romance/ Friendship **

**Warnings: Stripping scene. Shounen ai (barely noticeable). Failure attempt at romance.**

**x.x.x.x**

When Midorima gets to the Takao residence he wonders why is he even there, watching his self-proclaimed partner fumble with the keys. He was just Takao's teammate, for goodness's sake, not his _mother_, and-

"There we go~" the girl wrenches the door open with a relieved sigh and steps into the darkened house. "I'm home~"

"Pardon the intrusion," Midorima mutters as he takes off his shoes. He half expects Takao to spring out of nowhere with a giant grin on his face and chirp, "Welcome home, Mayu-chan, Shin-chan~", but then he remembers that Takao is bedridden, or so his cousin claims.

Said cousin was currently attempting to tiptoe to the living room and failing rather miserably. "She waves to what Midorima guesses to be the dining room table and says, "Midorima-san, you can put your stuff in here-"

"There is no need." He ignores the helpful gesture and makes his way to the stairs, knowing that Takao's room is up on the second floor. Innumerable studying sessions had granted him this knowledge. He stalks quietly to the upstairs landing, turns right, and opens the door to Takao's bedroom.

The room is not as messy as he remembers—the books on Takao's desk were neatly stacked, for example, and his basketball uniform was hung up on the backside of the door. The bedside table was also less cluttered and now occupied by a full jug of water and an empty glass on a tray. Everything else was as it used to be, however—the bookshelf was still hellishly messy, the rest of Takao's clothes were spilling out of his closet, the two basketballs Takao owned were wedged firmly behind his radio set and basketball magazines, and the newspaper clippings on the wall were still remarkably well-kept.

"Chair, Midorima-san?" A female voice comes from behind him and he starts. The Takao girl was standing behind him, a bunch of clothing in her arms, a wooden chair in her hands (Midorima wonders how did she even get behind him without him noticing with that chair in her hands. Surely there are not that many Kurokos in the world?) and an unreadable expression on her face. He takes the chair wordlessly and motions for the bundle in her hands.

"Help me change Kazu-chan," she continues in a stage whisper. "He's too heavy for me to lift." She throws the clothes in her arms to Midorima and she catches it with practiced ease. "I'll be back with something for him to eat so take care of him for a while, m'kay?" She flounces out of the room before Midorima could reply and closes the door.

Mentally fuming at the willfulness of Takaos and teammates he holds out the clothes he was handed before him. They were obviously at least three sizes too small for Takao and he throws them into the laundry basket he knows Takao has hidden somewhere in the diabolical chaos he calls a room. Grumbling he goes to Takao's closet, throws it open and immediately recoils from Takao's scent assaulting his senses. It was until he realizes that the clothes were clean (the dirty ones were either on the floor or in the laundry basket) and what he was smelling didn't originate from old sweat did he relax and begin to pick out some clothes that actually fit Takao.

In the end he picks out a loose grey vest and a pair of even looser shorts and returns to Takao's bedside. It is the first time he sees Takao so vulnerable—usually it is him on the offense with his inappropriate jokes and Midorima on the defense with his stoic mask, but when he sees Takao snoring softly and obviously fast asleep and his features completely smoothed out he finds himself almost at peace.

Reluctant to wake Takao up—_not because he found watching him sleep __**interesting**__ you understand, __**definitely not**__ because of that_—he settled for sitting on the chair whatshername— Ayumi— Kasumi— brought in earlier, and tried to wait for Takao to wake up by himself.

It didn't take very long for him to wonder why on earth was 'River Flows In You' playing in his head, though.

x.x.x.x

Shie herself had an MP3 player blaring 'River Flows In You' and her face pressed against a sheet of paper marked 'X-ray'.

"Hurry up and get it on already," she groaned. "There's even a BGM..."

x.x.x.x

He decides to not bother about the weird music in his head and decides to get started with what Takao's cousin asked him to do.

But of course he is going to first make sure that Takao can't change himself. He'd rather not go through the mortification of taking off his teammate's clothes, regardless of what he has said to Takao's cousin earlier.

"Takao." No reaction. "Wake up, Takao." Still no reaction. He gets up, circles around the bed, and quietly pulls the curtain open to see if the sunlight will wake Takao up before he remembers that the sun has probably already set and there is no sunlight.

He is in luck, however—while there was no sunlight strong enough to wake Takao up the sunset's glow dips Takao in some sort of golden iridescence and he looks even - well, even more- b-breathtaking. Midorima is loath to admit it but Takao looks breathtaking, bathed in a golden glow like some sort of a deity.

A sleeping, lightly snoring deity running a fever with his hair mussed up and blanket impossibly tangled around him. Midorima shakes his head to clear his thoughts and returns to his chair. He hopes that Takao isn't going to wake up now, not when he's finally decided to change his clothes. Imagine what would happen if Takao caught him. Perish the thought.

Gingerly he props Takao up with his pillow and stops. So far so good- he isn't awake. Then he tries to peel off the blanket sticking to Takao. That proves much harder—Takao has obviously tried to make himself into a sushi roll with the blanket as the seaweed and himself as the filling and he is halfway to just shaking Takao awake and throwing the clothes into his face when he manages to roll down most of the blankets to Takao's waist. Still good- Takao is still snoring. Midorima thanks Oha-Asa that he has brought his lucky item with him and was therefore allotted a greater amount of luck.

Heartened by the success he uncrosses Takao's arms when Takao mumbles something and he stiffens. He stays in the same position for a torturously long time—or maybe it was three minutes—before he deems it safe to continue and begins to un-un-und-undre-_undress- there, _he admitted it- Takao.

He tries to make it quick. He hooks his fingers beneath the hem of Takao's T-shirt and feels the sweat on his back and mutters, "Stupid girls." He tugs the T-shirt up to Takao's arms and realizes that T-shirts do _not_ automatically go through arms, swears under his breath and decides to hold Takao's arms up, one after the other. He does the left arm first, since it's nearer to him, and he has in fact succeeded in getting the stretching T-shirt off the offending arm when the propped up-Takao falls neatly into his arms.

Midorima feels that annoying heat creep over his face and resists the urge to swear very loudly because that would wake Takao up and make the entire situation even worse. He removes Takao from his personal space like he would remove broken glass and delicately secures Takao in place again. Now he only has to get the T-shirt off the other arm-

"Shin-chan?"

Oh, Oha Asa.

x.x.x.x

When Takao feels a warm impact on his general left side he is first alarmed, then curious, and tries to make himself seem as much asleep as possible. The next thing he feels is that his left arm is uncomfortably held up and the grip on his wrist is steadily getting more and more painful. There is also a strange coolness on his midriff and chest and he wonders what could have caused that before his mind leaps to the conclusion that he is getting naked. At that he opens his eyes.

He did not expect Midorima to be the one he will see.

"Shin-chan?" the name is half accusation and half exclamation. Midorima visibly pales and blushes. "What're you doing?"

"C-changing y-y-your clothes," he stutters, and Takao feels the irrepressible urge to give his partner a big hug. Shouldn't it be a crime to be that adorable?

Instead he shakes his head mournfully. "Ah, so my Shin-chan is actually a closet pervert… taking advantage of a poor little boy with a fever-"

"Taking advantage- me- what- favour- didn't- _Takao_!" The incomprehensible retort ends in a screech and Takao winces from the noise. "Just joking." He grins tiredly. "You'd better explain why I woke up with my T-shirt mostly off me though."

Midorima blushes and explains that Takao's cousin had asked him to help change him, presumably because it would be bad for his health if he stays in old, wet clothes for too long. Takao isn't really listening- more enjoying the blush on Midorima's face if anything.

"Going to finish what you started, Shin-chan?" he suggests with a foxy grin on his face and this time Midorima does not hesitate to stab him in his side with a paper fan he pulled out from god-knows-where. "Oww, ow! My bad! Sorry!"

Midorima wordlessly hands him a grey vest and shorts and Takao understands that Midorima was definitely not helping him change his clothes if he was capable of doing it himself. With a slightly disappointed sigh he rips off the T-shirt and shorts and notices one thing missing.

"Shin-chan?"

"Nnn?"

"Could you hand me some boxers-"

"_No._" the cold had returned to Midorima's voice.

Oh well, he could change those later.

x.x.x.x

After he changes Midorima relays the day's homework and tests and important announcements to Takao, along with a message from Ootsubo.

"He says that he will personally skin you alive if you do not come back tomorrow for practice," Midorima finishes in a stonier tone than usual, eyes determinedly glued to his taped fingers. He was still mortified by the earlier events.

"I see." Takao himself was barely paying attention to the tirade of Ootsubo, relayed to him by Midorima word for word, though thankfully without the facial expressions and not by the same tone of voice. He wasn't sure if his head could take it—apparently it was still sensitive.

While his head was still sore, however, his eyes were not impeded, and those he began to exercise as he let his gaze slide towards Midorima's face. His head was lowered so he did not see much, but the rosy blush from earlier was still there. He smirked. It was slightly flattering to know that however stoic Midorima may be, Takao still had some sort of influence over him.

The face that he was a tsundere, of course, certainly accounted for some part of the influence.

Speaking of which, where was the stranger girl with the amber eyes that had impersonated Mayumi? She had refused to disclose her name, followed him to his home, literally dragged him into bed when he was sick, and asked Midorima to come up, all of which, when pieced together, made no sense.

He would have to get to the bottom of this.

"Shin-chan, did you see my cousin today?" he asked suddenly.

Midorima blinked, and, much to Takao surprise, blushed even more. "Yes. She asked me to come up, remember?"

Takao flailed his hands. "Noo, at school, at school!"

"She was highly disagreeable."

Well, if the stranger girl acted completely like Mayumi then of course she would be disagreeable. The real Mayumi was like a hyped up version of himself. "Like how?"

"I have no wish to recall."

"Coome oooon, Shin-chaaaan-" Ooooh, there was something there. "Teeeelll meeee~"

"Whatever happened at practice is none of your business!" Takao's grin stretched even wider.

"Afternoon practice~? Don't tell me, you and Mayumi," Takao took a deep breath, "kiiiiss-"

"_We did not kiss!_" Takao has satisfaction and another hard-to-identify emotion on his face as Midorima's face begins its' transformation into a tomato. "God, Takao, did the fever burn up your brains or something?"

"Then what happened?" he folds his arms, and even sitting on his bed and leaning against the headboard he looks mildly threatening. Midorima supposed it comes from months of teasing him and coaxing secrets out of him every other day.

"Oostubo and Miyaji thought she was my girlfriend," Midorima mutters.

"Pfft-_girlfriend_- pft-fhahhahaha-!" Midorima watched Takao break into hysterics firstly with slight concern, then with increasing annoyance, and finally with a comical vein throbbing on his head.

"_Takao_." The tone enough was warning, much like the time when Takao had accidentally flipped an _okonomiyaki_ onto his head after the Interhigh prelims, and just like that time, Takao apologizes immediately. Being dragged out to get punched by Midorima in the rain was probably one of the reasons he got sick, and he doesn't think that an extra punch would do anything to help him get better.

Unable to resist one last poke at Midorima's pride however, he teases him one more time. "But still, Shin-chan sure is popular with girls –gyaaaah-!"

We shall temporarily close the curtain on the unfortunate point guard and the shooting guard with increasing violent tendencies.

x.x.x.x

As Shie's interest on the scene in Takao's room wanes, the raging pain in her legs increases. She sighs and wonders why the invincibility granted manga characters was not granted her. God knows she could use it now—ferrying Midorima back and forth and escaping from a horde of Mayumi fangirls, magical track shoes or not, was bound to be extremely taxing on the body and right now she would gladly tear out her legs if the pain would just _stop_.

Heck, she doesn't even know if she can go to school tomorrow, what with the way her legs are hurting.

The phone rings suddenly and she automatically pats her pocket to feel for her phone before she realizes that it is Mayumi's phone ringing. Said phone was unfortunately buried in Mayumi's bag so she crawls over as quickly as possible and digs into the bag. When she retrieved the phone she flips it open.

Surprisingly, Mayumi's phone wasn't the type of person to enter names with cutesy suffixes. The name that appeared on the callers' ID, however, gave Shie a bit of a shock.

'_Aida Riko'_

x.x.x.x

**A/N: Oh man, I missed the Valentine's Day event. (But I'm not sure if this thing even qualifies as fluff. Is it? You decide.) I hope that anyone who happened to read the last chapter isn't too disappointed. I hope Takao and Midorima weren't too OOC. I hope I can write better fluff/romance/whatever.**

**Anyway, the drill: KnB not mine, review, let me know what you think.**


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